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I don’t know what the weather has been like by you, but it has been glorious here the past few days. I have been taking full advantage of that before we enter into the land of the frozen tundra for the next several months.

In My Box is hosting this week’s gluten-free menu swap with the them of “Dutch Ovens”. I don’t have anything on this week’s menu that would utilize my dutch oven, but I do occasionally use mine to make pot roast with potatoes & carrots. With the weather getting colder, it may be time to break it out & cook up a great roast!

Last night Aaron & I went out to celebrate our anniversary at Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse. What an amazing dinner. The chef was extremely helpful & knowledgeable about the gluten-free diet. We both ordered off the Sea & Shore 3-Course Menu. My dinner included a beefsteak tomato & onion salad (sans onion) with hard smoked mozzarella cheese & balsamic vinaigrette, 7 oz medium rare filet mignon, Colossal Sea Scallops with lemon citrus sauce, broccolini and creme brulee for dessert. I also had a nice glass of pinot noir & syrah. Aaron had the same thing, but had a Caesar salad & crab cakes for his salad & seafood. He opted for the cheesecake for dessert. We came home & watched Orphan. Talk about a freaky movie! Yikes!

I made 2 more chocolate pumpkin loaves this weekend, but this time was a disaster! Instead of Pamela’s, I used my Rebecca Reilly flour mix, forgetting that it doesn’t have xantham gum in it yet. Since I also leave out the egg whites (which worked fine the first time) it came out super crumbly. I also doubled the recipe to make 2 loaves and the whole thing just came out dry and off. I’ve actually never had a good experience doubling GF recipes. Don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not but I think I’ve learned my lesson!

I brought loaf #2 to a meeting, though, and people still couldn’t get enough of it. They were scooping up the crumbly bits and munching away!